


Unfinished Business

by writinginthegutter



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F, On Hiatus, Supernatural Elements, Work In Progress, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 16:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14060874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writinginthegutter/pseuds/writinginthegutter
Summary: Beca thinks some girl barging into her shower to sing with her is strange enough as it is, but it's only the beginning of an even weirder, supernatural mess





	1. Chapter 1

“Hi! Can you sing?”

Beca’s daydreaming was interrupted by a tall blonde in front of a club’s stand.

 “Uh, kind of?”

“Any interest in joining our acapella group?” 

Beca took a look at the girl, handing out flyers all alone, and wondered what she meant by “our”. She supposed there were other girls in her group who just couldn’t be bothered to stand around all day handing out flyers. She had the tired, but still faintly hopeful look of someone who had spent all day asking the same question, and Beca almost felt bad for letting her down but-  _acapella_ , yikes. 

“I’m sorry, I just… think it’s kinda lame”

“Aca-scuse me?” The blonde huffed indignantly. “Synchronized lady dancing to a Mariah Carey chart-topper is not lame! We sing all over the world, and we compete in national championships!”

“On purpose?” 

“We played the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, you bitch! Last year, we even got invited to perform at the Lincoln Center!” 

“That’s… great”, Beca said with a hint of sarcasm, looking at the pictures of girls in matching flight attendant uniforms on the flyer. Once again,  _yikes_. “Alright, well, I gotta run, but I’ll keep it in mind”, she added without any enthusiasm.

“Auditions are tomorrow morning! Don’t be late!” The girl yelled as Beca walked away.

 

 

***

 

 

_You shout it out_  
But I can’t hear a word you say  
I’m talking loud not saying much 

Beca’s voice resonated on the walls of the empty bathroom of her dorm.

_I’m criticized but all your bullets ricochet  
You shoot me down, but I get up_

 She headed to the shower, quickly shedding her bathrobe, and got in the shower, still singing.

_I’m bulletproof nothing to lose_  
Fire away, fire away  
Ricochet, you take your aim-

“Wow, you can  _sing_ ”

She was startled by an unknown voice that sounded  _way_  too close to her. 

“Dude!” She yelled, turning around to see a girl  _standing in the shower_   _behind her_. 

“How high does your belt go?” The redhead inquired, leaning towards her, not in the least bothered by the fact that  _they were both naked_. 

“My  _what_? Oh my god!” Beca gasped incredulously, shutting the water off as she stepped back.

“Have you ever thought of joining an acapella club? You  _have_  to audition for the Bellas”

“I can’t concentrate on anything until you cover your junk,” Beca said in disbelief as she desperately tried not to look at the girl right in front of her. There was no way this was actually happening. 

“Just… consider it! One time, we sang back-up for Prince! His butt is so tiny, I could hold it with, like, one hand” the stranger continued enthusiastically, carrying on the conversation, leaning even closer. Was that girl for real? Beca pulled on the shower curtain, unsuccessfully trying to cover herself.

“Seriously? I am nude.” Beca protested, turning around, which had for only effect to draw the intruder  _even closer_. 

“You were singing Titanium, right?”

Beca couldn’t help smiling at the mention of the DJ. “You know David Guetta?”

“Have I been living under a rock? Yeah! That song is my jam!… My _lady jam-_ ”

“That’s nice.” Beca was, once again, sincerely hoping that conversation would end soon.

“It is,” the redhead replied, oblivious. “That song really builds…” She added with a wink. 

“Gross,” Beca muttered under her breath.

“Can you sing it for me?”

“Dude, no, get  _out_!”

“Not for  _that_  reason. I’m not leaving here ‘til you sing, so…”

Beca gave her a look- she couldn’t  _believe_  this girl. 

Said girl simply sighed, clearly determined to stand right there for as long as it took.  _Fine_.

Beca turned around, keeping her arms crossed over her chest, and started singing again. 

_I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose_

The girl joined her. Her voice was higher, complementing Beca’s perfectly. 

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet, you take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

_You shoot me down but I won’t fall, I am titanium_

_You shoot me down but I won’t fall_

_I am titanium_  

The stranger smiled, clearly very pleased with herself, and Beca couldn’t help smiling back. She had to admit they sounded beautiful together. 

“I’m Chloe, by the way!” the girl said, seeming to suddenly realise she hadn’t properly introduced herself when she _busted into Beca’s shower_. “and you are?”

“Beca…”

“Well, I’ll see you around, Beca!”, Chloe concluded as she  _finally_  exited the stall. 

Beca sighed. This was going to be a long year.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Beca looked at the flyer again, her eyes searching for the right building.

She couldn’t believe she was actually going through with this. It was definitely  _just_ because she needed to sign up for a club for her dad to let her move to L.A. next year, and had  _nothing_  to do with that quirky redhead from last night. At least, that’s what she tried telling herself. She finally found the auditorium where the auditions were held. 

_Don’t be late_ , the serious blonde from the fair had warned her. She was counting on the fact that she was probably too desperate for new members to be bothered by the fact that she was  _so_  late. 

She turned out to be right. Despite scowling when she appeared on stage, the blonde- who later introduced herself as Aubrey- reluctantly told her she had secured a spot in the group after her performance.  

“I was surprised to see you here”

Beca turned around, still gathering her things backstage. Despite her tense tone, Aubrey’s face held no real hostility. She figured that was just how she usually talked. That girl  _needed_  to loosen up, Beca decided. 

“You didn’t seem very… enthusiastic, yesterday,” Aubrey continued. “What made you change your mind?”

“One of your… members heard me sing, back at my dorm, and said I should audition. She was pretty convincing,” Beca smirked. Convincing… that was the least she could say.

Aubrey’s brows arched in confusion. “A member?  Who?”

“She said her name was Chloe.”

“Excuse me?”

Beca didn’t know how to interpret the look on Aubrey’s face. Was she… angry? 

“Uh… Chloe? Red hair, blue eyes, about this tall…” Beca gestured, trying to describe the girl the best she could.

For a second, Aubrey’s eyes widened in surprise, but her expression quickly turned to one of anger.

“That’s not funny,” she said, her voice ice cold. 

“I’m not  _trying_  to be funny!” Beca contested, confused. “Look, maybe she’s new and you haven’t met her yet, or-”

Aubrey cut her off. “Oh, I know her alright.”

She was trying to sound authoritarian, but her voice trembled slightly. 

“Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but if you insist on making jokes about  _that_ , then you can  _get the hell out_. I won’t let you-”

Aubrey’s outburst was interrupted as she started to gag. Beca took a step back. The blonde bent over, with her hands on her knees, and breathed deeply. She closed her eyes, eventually seeming to calm down, then stood up straight again and shot Beca one last glare.

She was out of the door in seconds, slamming the door behind her and leaving Beca alone in the auditorium, wondering what she could have possibly done wrong. She figured some kind of feud went on between the two girls- but still, that was no reason to take it out on her. Maybe she thought Chloe and Beca were plotting something, and her joining the group was part of some elaborate sabotage scheme ? It all seemed pretty childish to Beca. Besides, who would spend that much effort and energy into sabotaging an  _acapella club_  ? She sighed. It wasn’t like she  _really_  wanted to join that club to begin with. Sure, she was a bit bummed out that she went through the auditions for nothing, but at least now she could tell her dad that she tried. That should be good enough to get him off her back. 

 

She went though her day, trying to push the events from the morning away from her mind, but she couldn’t help it- it was bugging her. The way Aubrey had suddenly snapped at her at the mere mention of some girl was odd, to say the least, and was enough to get Beca curious about what could’ve possibly gone down between them.

She thought back to the night before. She could see how the redhead could get quite a reputation if barging into strangers’ showers was a habit of hers, but besides the complete invasion of privacy, she had seemed kinda sweet. Beca obviously had no basis to determine what the girl could be capable of, but she still wondered what someone like her could have done that was bad enough to get that kind of reaction at the simple mention of her name. Besides, as much as she would hate to admit it to anyone else, the prospect of getting kicked out of the group right after getting in bummed her out more than she initially thought. After all, joining the Barden Bellas was the closest she could get right now to making music as an extracurricular, and losing that would suck, especially considering her internship at the campus radio had turned out to mostly consist of stacking CDs.

Maybe if she could figure out what exactly had happened between Aubrey and Chloe, she could fix it somehow, or at least figure out how to convince Aubrey she wasn’t a threat. Beca huffed- she couldn’t believe she would actually consider getting involved in whatever childish drama that was, but it honestly seemed to be her best option. 

She tried hard to think about everything she knew about Chloe, Aubrey, and the Barden Bellas… which was, unfortunately, not much. She knew Chloe was in the Barden Bellas- or had been, at least. Maybe she had been a member until last year, and gotten kicked out- but then, why would she have encouraged Beca to join? It didn’t make much sense- unless she leaved by her own accord and Aubrey got mad at that.

She thought again about what Aubrey had told her at the students fair-  _Last year, we even got invited to perform at the Lincoln Center._  She hadn’t noticed at first- mostly because she didn’t care that much- but now that she thought about it, that was a strange way to word it. Did that mean they earned a spot, but didn’t get to actually perform? She felt she was on to something there. She grabbed her laptop and searched “Barden Bellas Lincoln Center”, on the off chance the school paper, or maybe some weird acapella blog, made a small mention of it somewhere. Whatever she was expecting, she was not prepared for the results she found. 

The first headline made her blood run cold. 

“Barden student falls off stage and breaks her neck during acapella competition rehearsals” 

She clicked it, and frantically skimmed the text. The name of the victim caught her eye immediately.

Chloe Beale.

_Fuck_. No. No way. 

She scrolled to the bottom of the text, eyes widening in horror when she saw her photo. Her eyes met those same blue eyes that had looked right at her the night before. 

She slammed her laptop shut.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been three whole days. Beca had to face the facts.

She  _had_  to take a shower.

There were limits to pushing personal hygiene, even in college. Most importantly, there were limits to letting herself be scared of  _ghosts_. Logic and facts alone weren’t enough- she knew she had to go back there to prove to herself there was nothing to be scared of. There were plenty of perfectly logical explanations to what she had seen back then. Maybe the girl had a look-alike. In fact, she probably didn’t even look like Aubrey’s dead friend that much. They probably just both happened to have red hair and blue eyes. It’s not like she had worked intensely on memorizing the girl’s face, after all. Besides, did she even say her name was Chloe? Looking back, she wasn’t sure. She could’ve said “Zoe” or something similar. She gathered her towel and shower supplies, determined not to let any stupid superstition get in the way of her getting a long, hot shower, and headed to the bathroom.

She took what could probably qualify as the fastest shower ever that night. She had hopped in before the water could get warm, and now she was freezing and was pretty sure there was still some unrinsed shampoo foam in her hair, but at least she was  _clean_. Okay, so maybe that long, hot shower would have to wait til next time. Still, this was a first step. She put on her navy bathrobe, feeling silly for being so scared earlier. She laughed softly to herself, but her smile faded instantly when she pulled the curtain open to reveal a familiar face staring right at her. The blood-curling scream building in her throat stayed stuck and came out as a choked gasp as she jumped back.

No. No. No.  _No. This was not happening._

She squeezed her eyes shut in the hope that her mind was playing tricks on her, and the girl would be gone when she opened them again.

No such luck.

“Hi”, Chloe said cheerily. On the plus side, she was fully clothed this time, wearing one of those ridiculous flight attendant uniforms. 

Beca took a deep breath, the initial shock wearing off and letting her come back to her senses. This was obviously an actual, real-life, living and breathing person. Just some weird girl in the dorm who happened to bear a striking ressemblance to Aubrey’s dead friend. And wearing clothes eerily similar to the ones she probably died in. She shuddered.

“Hi”, Beca finally answered. “Hey, look, I’m sorry, I just need to see something”, she tried to explain, as she took a step towards and brought her hand to the girl’s shoulder to touch her. She knew it was stupid, but she needed to do this. She needed to make sure, to  _feel_  that this was an actual person. Okay, so it was a bit weird to reach out and touch someone to make sure they’re real, but again, some girl who barged in on her and apparently  _waited for her outside her shower_ was in absolutely no position to judge. 

Beca’s hand went right through Chloe shoulder, feeling nothing but cold air, and she withdrew her hand like she’d just been burned.

No. No. No. Not happening. Not. Happening.

She stepped back until her back hit the wall and turned her head to avoid looking at Chloe. She could feel her heart thumping, her mouth getting dry. She couldn’t tell how long she stayed like that, frozen, unable to think as she just stared at the wall next to her.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Chloe said softly.

Beca shuddered. “Yeah, sure, the  _ghost_  hiding in my school’s bathroom and popping out of fucking nowhere isn’t trying to scare me. What are you, Moaning Myrtle?  _God_ ”, she rambled, eyes still fixated on the wall to her side. She had started to feel strangely detached, like the situation was just too bizarre and horrifying for her to process. She was partly expecting cameras, or maybe some rich frat boys with a huge budget for pranks, to come out of nowhere.

When she finally built the courage to look back at her, she saw Chloe almost seemed almost  _hurt_. She would’ve felt bad if she hadn’t been a ghost who nearly gave her a heart attack.  

“Yeah, well, what am I supposed to do ? I’m  _stuck_  on this stupid campus. And there’s not much to do around here when you’re  _dead._ ”

A dream. Yep, that was it. She was dreaming. She was going to wake up soon. No worries. Just a weird, creepy dream. In the meantime, she’d just wait and see how it all played out.

“So you’re… for real? This isn’t some weird prank?” Beca asked hesitantly.

“Does this look like a prank to you?” Chloe asked as she put her arm right through the wall. Beca gulped. That  _was_  pretty convincing.

“Okay. Alright, wow, this is really happening. So, what is this, you’re the ghost of an acapella singer and I’m gonna have to perform at the Lincoln Center on your behalf so you can move on?”

Chloe stayed silent, looking at Beca expectantly.

“… _Seriously?”_

“Well, what else could my unfinished business be?”

“I don’t know, you must’ve had other stuff going on in your life-”

“Acapella  _is_  my life,” Chloe interjected. “At least, it  _was,_ ” she corrected with a sad smile.

“Fine,” Beca conceded, not in the mood to argue with a ghost. “There’s just one small problem. Aubrey hates me now”

“What? Look, I understand that Aubrey can be a little…  _difficult_ ,” Chloe admitted. “But how in the world did you manage to-”

“I told her you’re the one who convinced me to join the Bellas. She lost her shit, thought I was playing some fucked up prank on her”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “You  _what_? Why would you tell her about me?”

“ _I didn’t know you were dead, dude!_ ”

“Oh”

“Yeah,  _oh_.”

They stayed silent a moment, Chloe’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked deep in thought while Beca kept mentally repeating to herself that this was probably just a really, really weird dream.

Chloe finally broke the silence. “Look, she was probably just in shock. Tell her you must’ve… heard my name wrong, or something, I’m sure she’ll believe you. You’re a freshman, right? It would’ve been normal for you not to hear about me anyway”

“I’ll try,” Beca said doubtfully. After all, she was stuck joining some stupid club anyway. Might as well be a good samaritan for the undead while she was at it. 

“Oh, and one last thing,” Chloe said with a small voice, looking down, then right into Beca’s eyes. “Keep an eye on Bree? Please? I know she’s not the easiest person to deal with, but she’s a good person, I swear, and I love her. I’m sure you’ll love her too if you get to know her”

Beca smiled softly. “Sure”

Chloe’s faced instantly went from serious to gleeful. “You’re the best!” she squealed, and took a step forward as if she was going to hug Beca, then, seeming to remember her  _condition_ , she stepped back and out of the way. “Well, I better let you go. You should sleep”

“Yeah…” Beca mumbled, still in disbelief, as she started gathering her things and walked towards the exit.

“Hey before I go, I gotta ask,” Beca said, turning around, with her hand on the exit door. “Why… um… why were you naked in the shower last night?” 

She felt stupid asking that, but again, this whole situation was stupid so she might as well get to the bottom of it. Did ghosts need showers? Wouldn’t the water go right through her like her hand, or the wall?

“Oh,” Chloe blushed a little, seeming a bit embarrassed. She looked… kinda cute. Wait. no. not cute. She was a  _ghost_  and ghosts weren’t real and certainly weren’t  _cute_. 

Chloe answered, interrupting Beca’s inner monologue. “The shower’s the only place where I can still sing. Y’know, without spooking anyone. And so, if a girl walks in or something, she’ll just see someone showering. Nothing weird or creepy or ghostly about it.” she trailed off, still a bit flustered. 

“I… I guess that makes sense” was all Beca managed to say before she went through the door and into the dark hallway towards her room.


End file.
